Racism and Prejudice in Tom Sawyer

by spy4rev
Last updated 2 years ago

Discipline:
Language Arts

Public
for all

Theme: Racism and Prejudice

Racism - believing your race is superior to another

Prejudice - a negative opinion formed before knowledge of the subject

By: Maddie

People, even street urchins seem to be above of Negros.

Unfortunately, not many people in the South were abolitionists.

There are many examples of racism in the book. Click here to read some of them.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, is a book about a young boy's activities in the 1840s. Not only does it depict a boy's childhood, but it also reveals the lifestyle during this particular time period. This period, like all, had its ups and downs. One of the most negative aspects of this time was the racism and prejudice they had against Afircan Americans.

Throughout this novel, people of the 1840s have used deameaning words to put down people of the African American race. Even Huckleberry Finn said, "...and so does his pap's n*****man, Uncle Jake. I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he wants me to, and anytime I ask him he gives me a little something to eat if he can spare it. That's a mighty good n*****, Tom. He likes me. becuz I don't act as if I was above him. Sometimes I've set right down and eat with him. But you needn't tell that. A body's got to do things when he's awful hungry he wouldn't want to do as a steady thing."

In my opinion, and many others, racism and prejudice is wrong. In the 1800s, fortunately, people with this opinion started to do something. They are called abolitionists. They believed in a free country. Here is a website that goes into more informationa about this topic. Click anywhere on this parchment to get to the site.

Why did the white people think they were above the African Americans? Some would say different backrounds, others different habitats, and some other people might think it had to do with religion. But really, what was it? And, if thinking they were above them wasn't enough, why did they hate them? In the novel, the hate wasn't that strong, but it was still there. Click here to read what one person educationally thought the answers to the above question was.